When I got up last Saturday, it was just barely raining. I have lost the visor that I used to always wear for runs in the rain, so instead I wore a hat that didn’t fit very well, along with my bright fluorescent yellow NF Endurance Team shirt and black shorts. Since the rain stopped and didn’t start again for the duration of the race, I wished I hadn’t worn the hat at all because it wasn’t keeping rain off my face and was just making my head hot. I ended up carrying it for most of the race.

I didn’t expect to do well in this run. I hadn’t been training, really, and it was hot and humid. And my hat didn’t fit right and my bunions were kind of hurting. But I figured, hey, at least I’m out here, running.

The course was originally planned as a 10K (6.2 miles), but construction on the trail forced organizers to shorten it to a 5 mile race, which was just fine by me. (See lack of training, previous paragraph.) The volunteers at each mile let me know my time, and it was around 11 minutes per mile for the whole race. And at the time, I was discouraged by that, but then I realized that for me, that’s still pretty good. I even got third place in my age group, which really should have been second place if they’d had me in the age group that reflected the age I actually AM rather than the age I will be by the end of this calendar year. But still, I got a ribbon.

And that might be my last race for the year. What with having so little time and energy and motivation to run, along with foot surgery coming up this fall, I doubt I’ll be racing any more. But I hope to be back on the race circuit again next year.